BOOK XXIII. Lxiii. 117-120 



LXIII." The milky juice of the fig has the nature Fiqxand 

 nf vinegar, and so like rennet it curdles milk. It is 

 extracted before the fruit is ripe and dried in the shade 

 for clcaring up sores and promoting menstruation, 

 the application being a pessary made with yoke of 

 egg, or a draught vvith starch. With fenugreek 

 meal and vinegar it makes a Hniment for gout. 

 It also serves as a depilatory, heals eruptions on the 

 eye-lids, as well as Hchen and itch. It loosens the 

 bowels. Fig juice has the property of counteracting 

 the poison of hornots, wasps and similar creatures, 

 especially scorpions. With axle-grease it also 

 removes warts. The leaves and unripe figs make 

 a liniment for scrofulous sores and for all sores 

 requiring the use of emolh'ents or resolvents ; the 

 leaves by themselves too have the same property. 

 They are used as well for rubbing Hchen, mange, and 

 on all occasions where a caustic is called for. The 

 young shoots of the branches are appHcd to the skin 

 to render dog-bites luirmless. The same shoots with 

 honey are appHed to the sores called honey-comb.'' 

 With leaves of wild poppy they extract fragments of 

 bone. Their leaves beaten up with vinegar render 

 harmless the bites of mad dogs. The tender white 

 shoots of the dark fig are appHed to boils, and with 

 wax *■ to the bites of the shrew-mouse, and the ash 

 from their leaves to gangrenes and to reduce 

 excrescences. Ripe figs are diuretic, laxative, 

 sudorific, and bring out pimples ; for this reason 

 they are unwholesome in autumn, since a body 

 perspiring because figs have been eaten becomes 

 very chilled. They upset the stomach, although 

 only for a while, and they are understood to be bad 

 for the voice. The last figs are more wholesome 



493 



